The present invention realties to a wireless LAN setting system in which a connection setting of a target communication terminal with respect to a wireless access point is made in accordance with instructions by another communication terminal capable of executing data communication with the target communication terminal.
Nowadays, the so-called wireless LANs realizing data communication among a plurality of wireless stations (communication terminals) or data communication between a wireless station and an external network by use of radio waves, have become widespread.
In the wireless LANs, various communication methods, such as “infrastructure mode” in which each wireless station carries out radio communication (wireless communication) via a repeater station and “ad-hoc mode” in which the communication terminals functioning as wireless stations directly communicate with each other by radio, are employed. Each wireless station, configured to be able to switch its communication method depending on the purpose, is generally used in the “infrastructure mode”.
In a network employing the “infrastructure mode”, the communication terminal can access a wireless access point after various settings have been completed. The settings to be made include, for example, settings of a wireless LAN standard (e.g., IEEE802.11-b, -a or -g), a frequency range (i.e., a so-called channel) for the wireless connection, SSID (Service Set IDentifier) or ESSID (Extended SSID), and a WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy).
The above various settings of each communication terminal would be completed easily if the communication terminal has a user interface of high operability like that of a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as “PC”).
However, with communication terminals equipped with a user interface which is less operability than that of a PC (e.g. printers providing services via a network), adjustment of the settings through the user interface becomes an extremely complex and troublesome task.
To avoid the problem, there exist some communication terminals configured to support “remote setup”. For example, the communication method of the communication terminal (a target communication terminal) is changed to the “ad-hoc mode” together with another communication terminal, and the settings of the target communication terminal are made indirectly from the other communication terminal (remote setup) by exchanging data regarding the settings between the communication terminals. Another exemplary method is that the target communication terminal is directly connected to a PC and the settings of the target communication terminal are made indirectly from the PC by exchanging data regarding the settings between the communication terminal and the PC.
An example of such a technique is suggested in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. P2003-143156A. According to the publication, a communication device (network device) such as a printer functioning as a wireless station is configured to function as a wireless access point (relay station), and an independent wireless network is established by the function (relay function unit). From another communication terminal (wireless station) connected to the target communication terminal via the wireless network, settings necessary for establishing connection with another wireless network using its wireless station function (terminal function unit) are adjusted indirectly (i.e., the remote setup is done), and thereafter, the function the wireless access point is stopped. By such a technique, the time and trouble necessary for the adjustment of various settings can be reduced for communication terminals that are not equipped with a user interface of high operability.
According to the method described above, most of the processes regarding the settings that enable the target communication terminal to connect with the wireless access point are performed via the other communication terminal. If the target communication terminal has a function of executing processes regarding the settings such as a process of obtaining (or detecting) a parameter (e.g., SSID) necessary for the setting operation from wireless access points around the target communication terminal as suggested in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication P2003-204335A, it is preferable that the process is shared by the target communication terminal. In such a case, a burden to the setting communication terminal can be reduced.
In order to have the target communication terminal execute a part of the process for the settings, the communication terminal on the setting side may issue instructions, which are to be transmitted to the target terminal.
However, if the target communication terminal does not have a capability, the part of the setting procedure would remain unexecuted. In the worst case, both the target communication device and the setting communication device are stopped since no process is performed in the target communication device, and the communication between the target communication device and the setting communication device is terminated.
Further, according to second publication (i.e., P2003-204335A), a communication terminal receives a beacon signal which is periodically transmitted from each of the wireless access points around the device, and obtains the necessary parameters from the received beacon signal.
With this technology, it becomes possible to display the received parameters corresponding to the wireless access points as a list, and allow the user to select a desired one from the list and the parameters displayed on the list are automatically set. In such a configuration, the operability is greatly improved since troublesome setting operation can be simplified.
In such a case, however, when a part of the parameters (e.g., SSID) is not contained in the beacon signal, the remaining parameters are displayed. When such an access point is selected, since a part of the parameters are missing, the connection setting cannot be completed automatically. That is, if such an access point is included in the list, the user needs to perform the selecting operation again to select another access point since the setting based on the incomplete set of parameters will not work. Such a condition is not preferable in view of the operability.
In particular, an administrator of the access point may intentionally exclude the SSDI in the beacon signal, in view of security, so that the existence of the wireless access point is closed to the public but is open only to a limited users. In such a case, even the remaining parameters should not be displayed.
Conventionally, a so-called wizard which is interactive software used for performing the settings as above has been known. An example of such technology is taught in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 11-327830. The software in this publication is for setting a printer and printer driver. By use of such software, the user can complete the setting simply by inputting data in response to a sequentially displayed plurality of pieces of guidance one by one.
Incidentally, a PC provided with a plurality of I/F (interface) units for the wireless communication is conventionally know. An example of such a PC is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. P2003-91467. According to this publication, a user of the PC can select a desired one of the I/F units. When one I/F unit is selected, an SSID is obtained using the selected I/F unit. Then, based on the SSID, predetermined setting information is extracted from among a plurality of sets setting information. In accordance with the thus selected information, the setting of the wireless connection is made.
Incidentally, when the settings of a network device are made using the operation of the PC, as disclosed in the JP publication P2003-143156, if the user intends to use the PC having the I/F unit as disclose din the JP publication P2003-91467, an appropriate I/F unit should be selected from among a plurality of I/F units.
It is, however, troublesome to select an appropriate one of the plurality of I/F units. Further, if a wrong I/F unit is selected, remaining operation of the setting procedure may not be performed or the setting operation man not be completed correctly.